Let’s talk about Covid. I know, we’re all sick of it. I’m probably more sick of hearing about and talking about Covid than anybody I know. But I want to detail our experience with it since I don’t think I ever talked about it here.
Last year, towards the end of August into September, we battled the ‘C-word’. This was the time of the Delta covid surge here in South Florida. It was as if the entire community got it at once. My whole church got it that same week. It went through our whole house, hitting Little Richi first. I was second in line to get sick, then Big Richi, then Alex. One by one, it hit us all. One by one, we fought the fight. It’s been 6 months, and Covid-19 still hasn’t let us go.
Little Richi started off with a stomachache, which ultimately turned into a spell of vomiting. Within two days, he seemed absolutely fine. It was as if he was never sick at all. I never tested him for Coronavirus, because his symptoms didn’t seem to be anything like what I had heard on the news or had read about. He wasn’t coughing, sneezing or having shortness of breath. I thought it was a weird stomach bug, and that it had to run its course and pass through his system. Once he got better, that’s when it hit me.
I began to get a scratchy throat, and dry cough and felt so incredibly ill all over my whole body. It was akin to how you’d feel when you get hit with the flu. My symptoms were much different from Richi’s. I took a BinaxNow home Covid test two days after getting sick and got a negative. I was relieved. Big Richi also got sick the day after I did, and when he took his test, his came up positive right away. I took a test again the following day and it lit up like a Christmas tree. A big, fat positive was present within 15 seconds.
Alex got it last, and he was really sick for about 4 days. He’s young, healthy, and very fit, and he did really well besides fever and shortness of breath and a cough.
Me being who I am, I panicked. I cried and thought that was the end of the line for us. Assumed we were just done for. The news basically made it sound like it was a death sentence, and we wouldn’t make it due to my having asthma, and Richi having high blood pressure issues.
I am incredibly thankful that I opted to contact America’s Frontline Doctors and obtain consultation and Hydroxychloroquine as a lifesaving measure. We began taking it as soon as we found out we had it. We did not take a z-pack with it as per the recommendations, as the doctor I spoke with didn’t write for one. Regardless, our regimen looked like this:
- HCQ
- Vitamin D3
- Zinc (High Potency)
- Vitamin C
For the first 4-5 days, we thought it was awful but we knew we could handle it. It was around day 5-6 that things took a turn for the worse for us. I began getting sicker and sicker, and so did Richi. I was having such a hard time breathing, and my lungs hurt so bad. I was taking albuterol on top of it all, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t help. Nothing did.
Richi got to a point where he was turning gray towards about day 12, and he couldn’t stop coughing long enough to breathe. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t preparing myself to lose him. I truly believed at that point that he was not going to make it. I prayed so hard and cried out to God, begging Him to have mercy and spare his life. By day 15, I truly thought I was going to lose him. I began getting better on day 13, while he only declined.
I called his PCP and asked her to please, please write a prescription for something to help his lungs. I knew he had Covid pneumonia, and he needed something or he was going to die. She did a telemedicine visit with him, and initially, didn’t want to write him a prescription. I was so upset. I knew that could mean the difference between his life and death.
The next day, when I thought he was sick beyond repair, the nurse called and said they were calling in a prescription for a Zpack for him. I was elated! I felt like there was hope. I am so thankful we had amazing church friends to help us who were picking up groceries, making us soup and medicines (elderberry syrup), and checking in on us constantly. We were so blessed to have help from our daughter, Amber, who lives on her own now with bringing us things we needed as well.
We got through it. Praise the Lord, by HIS power alone, we got through it.
It’s hard to say if the HCQ worked. When people ask, “how did it work for you?”, my answer is, “Well, we survived.” I don’t know if the HCQ had any bearing on whether or not we did, or whether it prohibited the severity from getting any worse than it did, but I know this much: I don’t think the medicine saved our lives. I think God did. I believe he had his hand of mercy all over my house.
It was incredibly difficult to take care of Little Richi in that time. All I could do some nights was cry because I really had to have an honest conversation with myself. What if something happened to one or both of us? What would happen to Richi? How could we leave him without a mom and a dad?
I prayed a lot. I read the Bible whenever I could. My eyeballs hurt so bad, and so did my head. It was hard to, but I did it. The weakness I experienced was unlike anything I had ever been through. Taking a shower took everything out of me. I had to sit.
Walking to the kitchen from days 9 to 15 was like an Olympic sport. My blood pressure was dropping dangerously low throughout the whole ordeal, and numerous times I almost passed out.
In the end, God got me through.
I can’t say how thankful I am to still be alive, because unless you’ve been there and experienced it, you just couldn’t understand. And if you have been through what we went through, we wouldn’t need to explain. I’m not being sarcastic in any way, it’s just the truth.
The day I finally began to feel better, I remember falling on my knees and praising the Lord like I never had before. I got better before Richi did. During that time, I prayed earnestly for his recovery. I was so scared to lose my husband. It was one of the worst things I had ever had to witness. And covid was most definitely the worst illness either of us had ever been through. It took about a month for Richi to fully recover, and it took me about 2-3 weeks.
It’s been 6 months, and we are both still dealing with things post-covid. Alex actually got covid for a second time about 4 months after recovery. He got the new variant that causes mild cold symptoms. This variant took about a week for him to get better, but he did just fine. I was terrified of getting it and going through the process again – but I spoke with a doctor who assured me that we would never get as sick as we did with Delta because Delta was the worst of all the variants and we had antibodies.
Stuff we are still dealing with:
- Altered taste and smell. When we had covid, we lost both our taste and smell. It took about 3 weeks to 4 weeks after recovery to gain those back. When we did, they were incredibly distorted but over time they came back. At this point, there are certain things we are still dealing with that are pretty awful. For example, there’s this thing we both call the ‘covid smell’. Certain things smell absolutely putrid to both of us. Like, to me, everything smells like onions. And certain things taste like onions that aren’t even remotely similar. i.e. bananas have an aftertaste of onions. Tuna smells like the covid smell and tastes like it, too. Coffee smells awful (and you guys know how much I LOVE all things coffee) but tastes normal. Greek yogurt = covid smell. My armpits, breath, and pee = covid smell. Gross, but true.
- Worsened lung issues. My asthma has been kicked up about 10 notches. It would be great if that would go away now.
- Heart palpitations. Both Richis and I dealt with heart palps. All at the same time, all post-recovery. It’s stopped for all of us now.
- Insomnia. Bigtime. But we are also super exhausted.
- Body aches. It think Big Richi and I have covid onset fibromyalgia. It’s a thing. Especially back and joint pain.
- Other weird neurological symptoms, such as tingling in the legs -Big Richi
Have we gotten the shot? No. Do we plan to? Also no. Why? Because it’s our choice – and being that we have already had covid, and have antibodies, and also because the shot is causing numerous health implications across the board, we simply don’t want it. If someone chooses to get the shot, that’s their prerogative. As for us, though, it’s a hard pass.
Some things I learned through the process are:
- How fragile life truly is
- Not to watch or listen to the news anymore
- HCQ may or may not work; but if we ever needed to take something again, I think I’d opt for Ivermectin
- Covid really is as bad as people say it is (at least, Delta was)
- Trusting God fully in the hardest, scariest circumstances is really all we can do
- To be thankful for each and every single breath, every day, every moment of life and not to ever take your family for granted
Have you had Covid? What was your experience with it? I’d love to hear about it. Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!
Praying you are all staying healthy, safe, and vigilant in these times.
God Bless you all!
JUST A MOM MINUTE 